This article was co-published with @itsmrmatematiko .
Introduction:
Years ago, when we were still learning the areas across the vast components of the tech industry, we had our first encounter with UI/UX Design. Like everyone else we know, our encounter was just a mere familiarization of the keyword and we barely did not know anything about it.
We are also not a stranger to falling into the trap — linking UI/UX into a mere field of graphic design. We also thought that because of the word ‘design’ in UI/UX design, this field would all be about heavily investing in aesthetics to create applications.
For this article, we would be targeting to equip you with the necessary and foundational definitions encapsulated within UI/UX design. Like how we are still progressing beginners in this field, we would make sure that our approach for presenting the information here would also be beginner-friendly and beginner-centric.
You will expect to see the following contents in this article:
- Defining and Understanding UI/UX
- What is User Interface (UI)?
- Components involving User Interface
- What is User Experience (UX)?
- Comparing UI and UX
- Creating Meaningful UI/UX Designs
- Knowing your Target Audience
- Visual Hierarchy
- Accessibility
- Gearing up for UI/UX Designs
Defining and Understanding UI/UX
In the field of digital design, the keywords user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) are frequently used — most of the time synonymously. However, these terms refer to different parts of the digital design process. Gaining an understanding of the distinctions between UI and UX promotes more effective teamwork, transparent communication, and ultimately, the development of user-centered solutions that satisfy a project’s goal and the user demands.
What is User Interface (UI)?
The point of interaction between a computer, website, or program and human users is known as the user interface. It is seen as the visual synergy of the interaction elements that make-up an application or website.
Making the user's experience simple and straightforward with the least amount of work required on their behalf to get the maximum intended result is the aim of successful user interface design.
A user interface involves the following four components:
- Navigational elements. User interface navigation is facilitated by navigational components. Back arrows, search boxes, and slide bars are a few UI navigational features.
- Input controls. Input controls are components on a page that let users enter data. Input controls include text fields, checkboxes, and buttons.
- Informational components. To convey information to the user, informational components are employed. An example of an informative element is a progress bar located beneath a video or instructional.
- Containers. Content is arranged into clearly readable chunks using containers. An accordion menu or other container element can be utilized to conceal or expose information instead of presenting each subsection beneath a tab.
What is User Experience (UX)?
Understanding users deeply — their needs, values, talents, and limitations — is the cornerstone of user experience (UX). It also considers the organization overseeing the project's corporate goals and objectives. The quality of the user's experience and impressions of your product, together with any linked services, may be enhanced by following UX best practices.
UX design seeks to give people a seamless, meaningful experience that fulfills their requirements and goes above and beyond what they anticipate. It does this by improving a product's usability, accessibility, and attractiveness. Higher conversion rates, commercial success, and enhanced user happiness, loyalty, and engagement may all result from effective UX design.
UI vs UX
Presented in the table above is a synthesized compare and contrast with respect to the nature and definitions of UI and UX. As seen in the comparison table, UI focuses on what is seen in an application while UX focuses on the technical aspects that underlies what is seen in UI. It could be basically represented in terms of human anatomy, with UX being the skeleton and UI being the looks of our bodies.
Making Meaningful UI/UX Designs
In creating UI/UX Designs, there are many substantial principles that should be kept in mind. For this article, we would be providing three of the main principles and matters that should be a fundamental guide in making meaningful UI/UX Designs.
Knowing your Target Audience
Hany Rizk states that UX architecture is in direct opposition to the UX concept if user research isn't done. User research determines a product's requirements and aids designers and stakeholders in understanding users and their demands. Let’s define what’s a target audience.
The target audience is a group of people that your website aims to reach. The user's initial impression is influenced by the appearance, feel, and ease of use of the interaction. For this reason, a new project's target audience study is a crucial stage in the creation of the UI and UX design. Remember that creating a seamless and simple user experience is the main goal of UX design.
Visual Hierarchy
The idea behind visual hierarchy is the arrangement of items to indicate their relative significance. Designers organize visual elements, including menu symbols, to make information easier for consumers to interpret. Through logical and purposeful arrangement of elements, designers shape users' perceptions and direct them towards desired behaviors. By adjusting these features, designers may utilize the hierarchy visual design concept to highlight the significance of each page or screen's contents:
Size: Bigger items are easier for users to detect.
Color: Vibrant hues tend to draw more attention than subdued ones.
Contrast: Colors with sharp contrasts grab the eye more.
Alignment: Elements that are not aligned are more noticeable than those that are.
Repetition: Recurring styles might imply connected material.
Proximity: Things that are close together appear linked.
Whitespace: When there is more room surrounding items, the attention is drawn to them.
Texture versus Style: Denser textures blend in more than thinner ones.
When it comes to user interface (UI) design, an efficient visual hierarchy serves to inform, impress, and persuade people who have expectations, particularly with regard to the look of an interface. Therefore, it's critical to organize a website, app, or similar product's pages or screens to reduce user confusion, maximize empathy, and provide an enjoyable viewing experience for consumers in order for them to succeed.
Accessibility
Designing a project that removes obstacles from websites that can impair functionality for users with physical, cognitive, or sensory limitations is known as accessible design. Initially, the goal of accessible design was to empower people with disabilities by facilitating more interaction with settings and services. It is now acknowledged as essential to society as a whole — even though we might not always identify with a particular impairment, everyone occasionally has diminished capabilities.
In the context of the web, everyone should be able to use the internet regardless of their disability. A considerable portion of visitors are cut off from websites that are inaccessible. Companies who disregard the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines may face legal repercussions for their web accessibility (WCAG).
Gearing Up for Creating UI/UX Designs
To start exploring and creating UI/UX Design, we first need to have a tool to create our designs. While any graphic designing applications are feasible, it is recommended to have an application that has a prototype feature, like that of Figma (this is not sponsored by them, we just love this application).
After navigating an easy tool at your disposal, you may now proceed to creating designs. There are a variety of strategies that you can do to learn UI/UX designing. You could opt to experimentally recreate existing UI/UX designs from known applications like Facebook and Instagram, you may also opt to enroll in courses that allow you to have structure in learning like these programs from Coursera and Udemy, and you may also learn it at your own pace while being guided with a roadmap like this one at roadmap.sh.
As what people like to say, experience will always be your best teacher and it strongly applies here in the tech industry, especially in UI/UX design. The more you get exposed to designing applications for public use, the more you would genuinely understand what works and what does not.
We wish you the best of happy learning, future designers! May our paths cross soon. Good luck and make the most out of exploring!
References:
- https://www.coursera.org/articles/ui-vs-ux-design
- https://www.figma.com/resource-library/difference-between-ui-and-ux/
- https://www.coursera.org/articles/ui-design
- https://www.usability.gov/what-and-why/user-experience.html
- https://medium.com/@ossmiumteam/why-is-the-target-audience-analysis-absolutely-necessary-for-the-user-interface-design-process-b20e87c07bbf
- https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/visual-hierarchy
- https://www.toptal.com/designers/ui/importance-web-accessibility
- https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/D5612AQHMSY7XjZrHLQ/article-cover_image-shrink_720_1280/0/1672410673609?e=1714003200&v=beta&t=CnCwnWjKROdjWPmkw8VYAElFOv3V3AzoQfWux1a39AA
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